IB Psychology: SCLOA – Attributional Errors
Attributional Biases Data Collection
The aim – is to investigate attributional styles and biases by collecting qualitative data through an interview. You are aiming to find examples of dispositional and situational attributions and to look for illustrations of attribution bias
The method – You are going to conduct a semi-structured interview with open questions. There is no manipulation of variables nor any attempt at a control condition so it is not an experiment.
Participants – You should use sixth form students, preferably not studying Psychology. It would be interesting to get some adult responses but you may need to alter some of the questions slightly.
Ethical considerations – Participants should be over 16 because you need to be able to get them to give you their fully informed consent. Work out how you will give the right to withdraw and avoid any possible psychological harm – probably embarrassment in this case. How will you protect confidentiality?
Procedure - Working in pairs
1) Decide who will be interviewer and who will record the answers
2) Use the ideas below and create at least two of your own open questions designed to explore attributions.
2) Find some willing participants (over 16) who will consent to be interviewed with the observer present (it would be easiest to find a friend). In order to compare the repsonses, and given you are a small class, try and find 2-3 people each interview.
3) The interviewer asks the questions in a way that will enable the participant to elaborate on their answers. The observer must record the answers as best they can.
4) Next you need to debrief the participant
5) Now it’s time to conduct some qualitative analysis, you are going to look for emergent themes across the range of people who have been interviewed. Analyse the attributions for examples of the 2 types of attributional bias: FAE and SSB
6) Be prepared to share your best examples with the rest of the class.
Materials: Here are some “open” questions you can use, create at least two more. You will need a response sheet for each participant.
• Considering your best GCSE result – why do you think you did well?
• Considering your worst GCSE result – why do you think you did badly?
• Think of the last time you or your team won a prize or did well in some activity. What factors lead to your success?
• Think of the last time someone let you down in some way. How do you explain their behaviour?
• Now think of a situation in which someone felt let down by you. How do you explain your behaviour?
In our paper 3 lessons I will show you how to write up the findings.
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